Todays buried treasure gane is a third person RTS/Rpg called Sacrifice!
(*cough* samus phails *cough* that is all.)
Sacrifice is a real-time strategy (RTS)/action hybrid game that differs from most games in the RTS genre in that the player assumes control of a particular character on the field (the wizard) and plays the game from a third-person point of view centered on that character, and play is very direct, in that all creatures are created directly from spells cast by the player. In contrast, most real-time strategy games allow the player to see the battlefield and play the game from a top-down point of view, and force the player to create buildings which can later be used to manufacture units.
In the single-player campaign, you play as the wandering wizard Eldred, a plane-jumper who leapt to the current world when his own was destroyed. Accompanied by the owl-like Imp Zyzyx (his familiar), the game takes place through flashbacks, with his recounting of his recent deeds being the background to the game.
In his now-destroyed homeworld of Jhera, Eldred was a man of substance (a lord or a king, he doesn't specify, though he was most certainly a tyrant, though in the end of the Pyro missions, it is hinted he was an emperor ) and one of many who vied for power. He spent his life forging another man's empire, but when the young monarch died at far too young an age, power and dominion fell to Eldred alone. Despised by his subjects, foreign powers and internal conspirators sought to tear his kingdom apart. Having dabbled in alchemy and conjuration before, Eldred was forced to turn his hobby into a serious study, eventually turning to dark, dark forces. This resulted in his summoning of the Arch-Demon Marduk, who promised to destroy his rivals.
He did, but he didn't stop there. What Eldred didn't know was that Marduk was a being of infinite appetite, a monster who fed off the worlds to which he was summoned. With Jhera crumbling into nothingness beneath his feet, Eldred and Zyzyx fled into the Astral Void, eventually "washing up" in the world in which the game is set.
This world is ruled by five gods and their wizard-champions:
Persephone: Self-righteous goddess of Life, whose virtue is Justice. She occupies the lush and green lands of Elysium (capital city: Idylliac)
James: "Good ol' boy" god of Earth, whose virtue is Peace. He occupies the harsh and rocky Glebe. (capital city: Agothera)
Stratos: Egocentric "know-it-all" god of Air, whose virtue is Knowledge. He occupies the snowy and desolate mountains of Empyria. (capital city: Thryhring)
Pyro: Techno-industrial god of Fire, whose virtue is Progress. He occupies the volcanic and depleted wastes of Pyroborea. (capital city: Helios)
Charnel: Amusingly malevolent god of Death, whose virtue is Conflict. He occupies the rotten barren lands of Stygia. (capital city: Dys)
The player takes on a mission to champion for one of these gods. After each mission you get to choose another task, and thus choose to serve a different god (or the same one) for the next mission. As the game progresses and the gods factionalise in preparation for their war, the player begins to lose contact with the gods of whichever faction he has assisted the least, except if the player champions for Stratos, who is amorally neutral and self-serving and plays off all factions to his own benefit.
It is, however, shown in the fourth mission that Marduk has followed Eldred to this world and is conspiring to destroy it as well. His plot involves the creation of a cult centred around Ashur, a persona he has created for himself, and founded with the help of Jaduggar, the last centaur, who despises the gods after Stratos allowed his people to be slaughtered. The cult revolves around the idea that gods are pointless beings whose very existence is predicated upon belief in them, and that the people of this world should stop believing and thereby free themselves of the endless religious warfare their gods have inflicted upon them over the millennia. In fact, Marduk is merely aiming to eliminate all supernatural resistance to his ultimate destruction of this world.
In the first six missions, if you accomplish some optional objectives or meet a particular target which are hidden from the list of primary objectives (in some maps, simply win the game; in some others, you have to figure that out) a god will offer you a boon upon victory, be the god the one who gave you the mission or another one involved in the game, ranging from increasing health, mana, or speed, to increasing magic resistance, physical resistance, and health or mana regeneration of your wizard.
The player fights through a total of nine missions, each one rewarding you with new creatures and spells, and the tenth and final mission taking place in the present and being the final showdown between Eldred and Marduk. Depending on the player's choices in his narration of the tale to Mithras, Marduk reveals himself in a different way, either telling the Player to open their eyes, or chiding him for not grasping power. Also, the God which the player serves in the ninth mission,effects Eldred's decision at the end of the story, depending on which, the Player can choose to move on to another realm, or help rule and rebuild the current realm.
One of the unique enemies in the game is Marduk. Marduk is the only wizard in-game who does not require an altar, and as such cannot be killed directly and also permitting him to directly steal the souls of the Player's slain creatures. This is unique only to the final level of the game, in other levels however, where Marduk makes a scripted appearance, it is possible to locate his altar either through Meanstalk 'catapulting' or through Scapex. However, attempts to attack Marduk or desecrate his altar, (If found, a rarity as they are usually located in hard-to-reach places) will prove futile, as Marduk simply teleports away off the Map, taking the altar with him.[strike]
Subject: The Buried Tresures!!! 
Mon Apr 06, 2009 2:59 pm
